Unexpected Travels
by NerdofSpades
Summary: Jim doesn't know where he is or how he got here, but he'll figure it out. Eventually.
1. Chapter 1

Jim darted through the trees, trying desperately to stay ahead of the strange winged people that were chasing him.

The sharp sound of metal sliding against metal was Jim's only warning before he felt hands clamp onto his arms and yank him into the air. He screamed and thrashed, trying to pull himself free, but he couldn't get any leverage. Another pair of hands grabbed onto his legs, holding him still as the winged figures flew straight up.

"Stop struggling!" One of the figures yelled at him. "Unless you want us to drop you!"

Jim glanced down and yelped when he realized how high they'd gotten. He immediately stopped thrashing. He couldn't afford to be dropped from this height.

"Thought so," the other snorted.

Jim rolled his eyes and took the time to look closer at his two apparently female captors and their friends who were falling into formation around them. He couldn't make out much under their armor and masks, so he chose to ignore that much at least. The armor itself was a silvery color with some bronze accents. The wings were the same silvery color and attached to their back in some kind of bump or ridge.

Jim did a double take when he saw one of the bumps move. A head lifted from the person's shoulder and turned to face Jim. Jim's jaw dropped. That meant the wings weren't a part of them. They were just humans wearing some other creature trained to carry them where they wanted to go. More importantly, it looked like those creatures were related to _Stalklings_. And they might have something to do with humanity's old stories about dragons, something Jim had attributed specifically to Stalklings up until now.

Jim turned his attention from the strange people to his surroundings. It looked like he was on an island somewhere, judging by the massive amounts of water he could see in all directions. Below him were large expanses of forest and he could just barely make out some building hidden among the trees near the shoreline. A head of them was a massive spire of stone that seemed to be where they were going. Getting down from there wasn't going to be easy, and it would be completely impossible if they checked in on him often enough or left a guard.

"So, uh, I'm Jim. Who're you?" Jim asked trying to make some conversation to pass the time as they flew.

"We are Wingmaidens," the woman holding his arms answered. "Atali will speak with you when we land. Save your questions for her."

"Okay then," Jim said, fighting down the urge to shrug. He fell silent and waited patiently as they flew.

When they finally landed and they women dropped him unceremoniously on the ground, Jim thought he managed to surprise them slightly by landing gracefully. Even in his armor, Jim knew how to handle himself. Blinky had started comparing him to a cat with his ability to land on his feet, or at least roll with it.

One of the people, this one not wearing a helmet, but rather a crown of some sort, and Jim could clearly tell she was a woman. She seemed to be the most important of all of them.

"You must be Atalia," Jim said, holding out his hand to shake it. "I'm very glad your people didn't drop me. I certainly didn't make it easy on them at the start and my armor's got to have made it difficult as well." They had the power here and, quite frankly, Jim was probably somewhere he wasn't supposed to be. It wouldn't pay to be hostile.

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Atali," she corrected, shaking Jim's hand, grasping his forearm. Jim was surprised and confused by the gesture but rolled with it. "I am surprised they spoke with you."

Jim laughed with a small smile. "Only to tell me to wait to talk to you. So, what are we going to talk about."

"How did you come to be on our island?" she asked bluntly.

Jim winced. "I don't actually know."

"Oh? Then what do you remember?"

He'd been trying out a new stone he'd found and cut. Then there'd been a light and a headache, and he was here. He didn't think he could say that. "I really don't know. One moment I'm, well, not here. The next I am."

"I apologize," she said. "But I'm afraid we won't be able to trust you without a better story. We will be calling someone else to retrieve you. Until then, you will be under guard."

"Oh, come on!"

"You will not be harmed. We will only be keeping an eye on you until we can escort you off our island."

Jim sighed. "Fine. Just, where am I?"

"You are on Wingmaiden Island, I'm afraid I can't tell you much more than that."

"Alright. Where will I be staying?"

"We will bring you back down to our village. Unless you would rather stay here?"

Jim thought for a moment. "I think I'll risk the trip down."

Atali smiled at him. "Very well. Wingmaidens!"

Jim yelped again as he felt someone grab his arms and lift him up again. This time he had one Wingmaiden on each arm, carrying him through the air. The flight took several minutes, and eventually they touched down, much softer this time, and he was directed to the hut he would spend the next several days in.

Once he was alone in the dark hut, he turned to the mirror on the wall, looking closely at his armor. Everything looked the same except for the Amulet, which now glowed purple instead of blue, the same color as the stone he'd placed in it. Using the stone had sent him here, removing it should send him back. Jim wrapped his fingers around the edge of the Amulet as much as he could with it embedded in the armor. He pulled gently. Nothing happened. Normally that much force from him was plenty to dismiss the armor. Jim pulled again, harder this time. His fingers slipped from the edges.

Jim was stuck in more ways than one. He couldn't take off his armor. And if he couldn't take it off, he couldn't take the stone out. He was going to have to let this run its course, whatever it was.

Jim groaned and flopped on the surprisingly hard bed. Looking closer at it, he discovered it was just a wooden slab with blankets and a thin layer of a straw like material. The pillow seemed to be made of some kind of wool with a coarse cloth covering. Jim simply lay back down and tried to get comfortable. It, at least, was better than sleeping on rocks like he did in the Darklands.

Jim scowled as he hid the unconscious guards in his hut and slid into the shadows of the trees. He just couldn't stay in there anymore. He couldn't sit still and play the good little prisoner, so he left. He was probably going to be caught and put straight back in that suffocating room with even more guards, but at least he'll have done something.

Jim breathed the fresh air as he ran. The ability to just move was intoxicating after spending so much time in one spot. The sunlight and the wind even more so. The more he thought about it, the more it reminded him of when he got out of the Darklands. Jim pushed the thought away and enjoyed himself as he moved undetected through the trees. Jim laughed and ran and simply existed free of constraint for hours.

The sun was setting when they finally began to catch up with him. Thick leathery wing beats came from over head while Jim darted through the shadows and stayed beneath the trees. Given the fact that they weren't already searching from under the canopy, he figured whoever was looking for him was much bigger than the Wingmaidens and couldn't properly maneuver in the dense forest.

A branch snapped behind him. Jim turned, hoping it was just some small local wildlife. Instead he saw a massive two headed, scaly, winged creature glaring at him. Jim took off running.

Two excited whoops came from the thing that started crashing through the trees, trying to follow him. Jim refused to waste the time to look back and continued trying to find the most complicated route with the smallest gaps between trees. Hopefully he could wear the thing out.

A flash of light and small explosion that left a tree on Jim's right badly damaged had Jim veering left and ducking under two more shots from his right.

Now he had two things chasing him. Flanking. Herding. The trees were thinning. If he remembered correctly there was a clearing up a head, which meant the flying ones that couldn't get beneath the trees would be waiting for him there. They'd just pluck him up like the Wingmaidens had last time.

Suddenly, Jim stopped, leaping backwards into the air, avoiding another blast from the thing on his right and a swipe from the jaws of the two-headed thing on his left. Jim twisted in the air, landing and dashing back the way he'd come from.

A series of spines embedded themselves in the ground directly in Jim's path, forcing him to back pedal and fall on his butt.

The three creatures had him surrounded and began moving in closer, stalking him slowly. Jim finally got a good look at the one that had been on his right, black and low to the ground, small in comparison to the two headed one, with some kind of purple light emanating from its mouth, likely one of the blasts it had shot. The one that had the spines was tall, two legged and blue, with a crown of spines on its head and more running down its tail, as well as a more beak like face. The two headed one, which Jim stopped to look at more closely, had long snake-like necks and stocky legs and was green in color.

"That's enough, Toothless," a voice said.

Jim blinked and turned back towards the voice. Towards the… okay, he'd admit it. There was no way it wasn't a dragon. It was a flying, fire breathing lizard. What else could it be? Sitting on the dragon's back, just behind its head, was a boy, probably a young man a bit older than Jim. Glancing back at the others, Jim noticed they all had people riding them. The blue one's rider sat behind the wings, and the two headed one had two riders, one for each head, gripping the horns like they were handles.

"Now," the man on the black dragon said, addressing Jim, "can you please stop running."

"Uh, sure," Jim answered staring. "I can do that."

"Great," the girl on the blue dragon said. "Let's go."


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, guys! Back again, as promised. I'm honestly a little surprised so many of you like this, but whatever.**

 **Guest: ... you're not wrong, but that's not exactly relevant to the story, so it won't be coming up.**

 **To everyone, thank you for the love and support. I hope you like the chapter!**

 **NoS**

* * *

No one said anything as they directed their dragons back towards the clearing. They stayed in formation around Jim, as they walked. Now that they had him, thy weren't giving him another chance to run off.

"But you gotta admit it, Hiccup, we found him first," one of the riders, male, said from the two-headed dragon.

"Yeah, you should've seen his face when he saw us," said the other, female.

"No, you didn't," the other girl on the blue dragon said. "You followed me and Stormfly, then ignored Hiccup's orders to follow and observe and just went right in, forcing us to move before the others had a chance to get ready."

Okay, so that meant that Hiccup was the one on the black dragon, which he'd called "Toothless" despite the fact that Jim had seen its teeth when it had the blast prepared to fire. Stormfly was probably the blue dragon.

"Yeah right," the man on the two-headed dragon said. "You just don't want to admit that Barf and Belch have the superior tracking skills."

Jim stopped to look closer at the two riding… Barf and Belch. They looked extremely similar to each other. Probably siblings. Either only a year or so apart or twins. Jim couldn't tell which.

"Guys," Hiccup spoke up, "we all know you were following Stormfly. Deadly Nadders are built to track. We've always relied on Stormfly's nose if we need to find someone. Zipplebacks are not built for tracking."

"Fine," the girl said, "deny Barf and Belch their glory."

They broke through to the clearing. A stout man stood near the middle, next to a large, but short, dragon with brown lumpy skin and wings so short Jim wasn't sure it could fly. The three dragons escorting Jim stopped. Jim decided to stop as well, not testing his luck against something that could probably barbeque him without even trying. Or maybe he would be more roasted, with his armor and all.

"Fishlegs," Hiccup said slowly, "where's Snotlout?"

"I tried to tell him it was a bad idea…" the stout man, Fishlegs, responded.

Jim was getting a little concerned. The names were… odd. Atali wasn't a normal name, but it would be better described as rare than strange. Hiccup, Snotlout, and Fishlegs were all very strange and probably unfortunate names. But it was three out of six. That mixed with the fact that they were all dressed strangely (leathers, rough cloth, simple colors, metal guards and helmets all around), told him he was probably a lot farther from home than he had originally thought. He might have even gone as far as to say he wasn't in the right time if that weren't impossible.

"What was a bad idea?" Hiccup asked. He sounded both frustrated and exhausted. Keeping these people in line must be like herding cats.

A snap of leather wings and a shout rang from above them. Jim moved on instinct, leaping to the side and rolling right next to the Zippleback they'd called Barf and Belch. Hopefully this idiot wouldn't risk attacking his own friends.

A massive dragon landed on the ground where Jim had been standing, flames licking across its body. Its wings folded slightly, attached to its front legs and its long neck bent as it turned its head towards him. Just behind its head, sat another stout young man, although he wasn't as wide as Fishlegs, and, like the siblings on the two-headed dragon, he held onto its long curving horns like they were handles.

"Snotlout!" Hiccup yelled.

"Aw, man," Snotlout whined. "You already caught him. You guys get to do all the fun stuff."

"It wasn't fun, Snotlout," the girl riding Stormfly retorted. "It's important. And it's not like it was very hard either."

Jim bit back his grumbling. He wasn't exactly trying to hide, but he'd hoped he would've been harder to find.

The dragon put itself out, revealing red scales beneath the flames.

"So, is that dragon usually on fire, or what?" Jim asked. Let's see if he can distract them.

"Well," Hiccup said. "Not usually, but it happens more often than some of us would like. Mostly when we're in a battle or Hookfang wants to remind Snotlout who's boss."

"What are you doing all the way out here?" Stormfly's rider asked. "I'm Astrid, by the way. The idiots over there," she gestured to the siblings, "are Ruffnut and Tuffnut. You'll figure out which one's which eventually. Hiccup is the one riding the Night Fury, and you've probably figured out who Fishlegs and Snotlout are by now."

Jim nodded, standing and taking a few steps away from the Zippleback. "I'm Jim," he introduced himself, ignoring how strange almost all their names were. "And I was just enjoying myself and exploring a little."

"Really," Hiccup asked, clearly not believing him. "You were just exploring and enjoying yourself?"

Jim shrugged. "I was going stir crazy and I knew they weren't going to just let me wander around. I need to get out and do something."

"So you just knocked them out and left,' Fishlegs interjected as he approached the group.

"It's not like I actually hurt them. They'll have a headache, maybe a minor concussion at worst. They'll be fine."

Hiccup sighed. "C'mon," he said, "let's just get back to the Wingmaidens and then get you off this island. You'll be riding with Hookfang. Oh, if you haven't been paying attention, my friend here is Toothless; Astrid is riding on Stormfly; the twins are with Barf and Belch; Snotlout is with Hookfang; and Fishlegs is with Meatlug."

"You want me to get on a dragon that regularly sets itself on fire to remind its rider who's in charge."

"Yup."

"C'mon," Snotlout said, patting the spot behind his saddle, "it's not that bad." As if on cue, Hookfang lit himself on fire again, scorching Snotlout's hand, then promptly put himself back out again, making a grating chuffing noise that seemed to be an approximation of laughter.

Jim blinked at them. "Yeah," he said slowly, "I think I'll go with…" he looked around to see the others had already left, "… someone else." Jim sighed. "Fine, let's go." He climbed into the spot behind Snotlout.

Hookfang lifted into the air with one powerful beat of his wings and quickly caught up with the rest of the group. The flight was quick and quiet, no one really talking until they landed back at the village.

When they landed, Jim jumped down quickly, the other riders doing the same, as Atali walked up to them. "I am glad you found him," she said to Hiccup, "where was he?"

"Out in the woods, not near anything important," Hiccup answered. "He said he was just stretching his legs."

"Be that as it may, he still attacked my Wingmaidens. Even if he weren't already leaving, we would not be able to tolerate him here any longer."

Jim held his tongue. Now was not the time to mouth off. Hopefully he would be able to figure something out wherever he was being sent.

"We'll take him back to the Edge with us," Hiccup said. "There's only so much trouble he can get into there."

"Are you sure that's the best place for him?"

"At least until we can figure out something more about him."

Atali nodded. "Then I wish you a safe journey."

"Atali," Jim stepped forward. He didn't want to leave on such a sour note. "I am sorry if I truly hurt any of your people and thank you for the shelter and food you have given me."

Atali was silent for a moment. "They were not seriously injured. Their pride suffered more than anything."

Jim nodded, but let it go.

Hiccup glanced at the sky. "We should get going," he said. "We've got a long flight ahead of us."

The riders didn't wait for another order, quickly mounting their dragons. "Well," Snotlout said, waiting for Jim to climb on. Jim sighed, but obeyed.

Hiccup and the others said their farewells and took to the air. They oriented themselves quickly and began flying at a steady pace. Jim wished he knew anything at all about dragon flight. How fast, what "gait" was a sprint or a jog or a casual stroll. As it was Jim couldn't tell how fast they were moving in comparison to a normal flight or their top speed.

As they flew the group of young adults began bantering, joking and playing around. Eventually, they turned their attention back to Jim. "So," Astrid said, "Atali told us you didn't know how you got to Wingmaiden Island. What's the real story?"

"That is the real story," Jim said, rolling his eyes.

"Ha! Even Tuffnut can tell that's not true!" Ruffnut yelled.

"Yeah!" Tuffnut agreed.

Jim sighed. "I really don't know. I don't even know where Wingmaiden Island is, or where home is from here."

"You mean to tell us you never heard of the Wingmaidens until a few days ago?" Snotlout said over his shoulder.

"Well," Hiccup called back from his place at the front, "we didn't know about the Wingmaidens until fairly recently either."

"Fine," Astrid said, "let's say we accept your story. Where _are_ you from? I've never seen armor like that before."

"Yeah," Fishlegs said as he directed Meatlug to move over next to Hookfang, "I'm not even sure what kind of metal that is."

"Um," Jim hesitated, "I don't know. It's just armor, I guess."

"Just armor?" Hiccup said from the front. "I've never seen a full metal suit like that. Honestly, I'm pretty sure I've never seen a full metal suit period! I know they exist, but we don't get them around here. We mostly just use leather, the metal goes into minor pieces, helmets, and weapons. There's just not enough metal around these parts to justify it."

"Oh." Jim wasn't sure how to respond to that. "I guess metal's easier to come by where I'm from."

"I'll say," Snotlout said. "They make any weapons to go with that armor. They've got to be wicked if you can afford to use your metal like this."

"Um… yeah. Some swords and knives and… stuff."

"So, why do you get the armor?" Snotlout asked. "You're not carrying any weapons, I doubt you're that important of a warrior."

Jim hesitated. "I- I normally have weapons, but they were gone when I found myself on Wingmaiden Island. And yeah, I'm not _that_ important. I'm still a minor after all, but my people haven't had anything to fight for a long time, so we don't have that many warriors in the first place."

"What kind of metal is your armor made of?" Hiccup asked.

"Oooo!" Fishlegs said, getting excited. "Yeah! What do you use?"

"I don't know," Jim said, shrugging his shoulders. "It's… It's some type of alloy, but I don't know what goes into it. That's not my area. So, uh, can you guys tell me more about where I am?"

The group hesitated. "Well," Hiccup finally started, "where we are now is beyond what our people know as the Archipelago. The six of us are from an island in the Archipelago known as Berk. We're… kinda on an exploratory mission right now."

"Yeah! We're Berk's best dragon riders! The first in the entire Archipelago!" Tuffnut bragged.

"You guys are the first dragon riders?"

"Uh, yeah," Hiccup said awkwardly. "We were the first Vikings to train and ride dragons. It took a while to get everyone adapted to living alongside dragons instead of fighting them, but we did it."

Jim froze. Vikings. _Vikings._ There was no way in hell they were actually Vikings.

"Don't be so modest," Astrid teased. "That was all Hiccup. He was the one that figured out how to train them. He and Toothless were the first. He taught all of us and we had to learn on the fly because we were going straight into battle completely untrained."

But if they were… that would put him, what? One thousand years ago? Longer? He was pretty sure Blinky had said the Vikings were somewhere between a thousand to… a thousand four hundred? That felt wrong, but Jim couldn't think of anything else.

"Yeah!" Fishlegs jumped in. "Hiccup went from being the little Viking to the pride and joy of Berk. He's practically the expert on all things dragon!"

"Now, you don't sell yourself short either, Fishlegs," Hiccup teased right back. "He can list off the stats of any dragon without even trying. Even what we know about the new ones that haven't been extensively studied yet!"

Either way, that would be not long after the end of the war and the Battle of Killahead Bridge. Blinky had theorized that the pillaging Vikings did was a response to the soldiers not having anything to do once the Gumm-Gumms were gone and the human society not knowing why there was nothing left to do.

"Oh, you stop that!"

"He's right Fishlegs."

"So, uh, dragons are pretty common around here?"

"What?" Snotlout said, confused by the sudden conversation shift. "Yeah, they're everywhere."

Jim was glad no one could see his face. Snotlout was at the back and Jim was even behind him. Fishlegs had returned to his position a while ago. Was he even in his reality? He was pretty sure someone would have found the bones by now if there had been dragons. Then again, people probably said the same kinds of things about trolls.

"Wait, why?"

"Jim?"

"Hey, kid!"

Jim jerked and shook off his thoughts. "Yeah?"

"You alright?" Hiccup called back.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine."

"Why'd you ask if dragons were common?" Astrid asked again.

"Oh, well, we don't really have any dragons where I'm from. Only stories."

"Then how did you recognize the dragons?" Ruffnut asked.

"Giant, fire breathing, flying reptiles," Jim said. "We call those dragons and we don't have any. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna call a giant, fire breathing, flying reptile a dragon, no matter how impossible it seems."

"That's fair enough," Fishlegs said, "but you should know dragons are a lot more diverse than that. Scauldrons, for example-"

"That's great, Fishlegs, but what's going on down there?"


	3. Chapter 3

Hiccup pulled Toothless to a stop, gazing down at a small island below them, while the other riders started hovering around him, confused.

"What's what?" Snotlout asked. "We need to get back to the Edge!"

"That's smoke…" Astrid said slowly.

"And those are Dragon Hunter ships!" Fishlegs said.

"Aw man," Ruffnut groaned, "we're not going back to the Edge, are we?"

"Nope," Hiccup said. "Who's ready for a little reconnaissance?"

"With the prisoner!?" Snotlout cried. "Wait, is he even a prisoner? Can I call him that?"

"Doesn't matter," Astrid said as she sent Stormfly into a dive, the rest following quickly after, some grumbling more than others. They pulled up a good distance above the ships and glided overhead, the riders glancing down. There wasn't anyone on deck. They continued onward and landed on a beach a little ways off. Something about there being less chance of being caught than at the closer beach. Everyone dismounted and began making their way into the forest that covered the island.

"Seriously," Tuffnut hissed, "why are we doing this?"

"Because," Hiccup said, distracted, "we need to know what the Hunters are doing here."

Jim looked around, taking in the forest. They could smell the smoke up ahead and were slowly making their way there. The dragons rustled the leaves and broke branches and their riders did too. Jim glanced at the ground, shaking off the sense of some threat hanging over his head. There was a footprint on the ground that looked… familiar, and it didn't match any of the dragons. Stormfly's foot was coming down on it. "Stop!" Jim yelled, rushing forwards. Everyone stopped and looked at him. Stormfly's foot was on the print. "Damnit, damnit, damnit," Jim muttered as he kept moving forward, pushing Stormfly away.

"What?" Snotlout said as Stormfly took a step back with a confused squawk. "What is it?"

"There was a track there. It didn't match on of your dragons," Jim answered. He examined the place where the track had been. He could only make out the general shape, not details outside of big. "Stormfly stepped on it."

The gang moved to gather around. "It probably belongs to a dragon that lives on the island," Hiccup mused.

Jim hummed. He wasn't so sure.

"We should follow it," Astrid suggested. "If Hunters are here, they're probably after this dragon."

"I've got more tracks over here," Fishlegs said, directing them off to the side.

"But that's away from the smoke!?" Snotlout complained.

"If we can beat them to it, we can protect it that much better," Hiccup pointed out as he went to look at the tracks, Jim close at his heels. The two of them each took a knee to examine the track more closely.

"Seems to be two legged," Fishlegs mused, "but it's stride is short."

"It's pretty heavy," Hiccup said. "Look at how deep the tracks are."

They were extremely deep, and wide.

"Yeah, it's strange."

It was fairly round, with three claw like protrusions at the front. It was familiar… Jim's head jerked up, glancing around. Branches overhead and the underbrush alike were broken, leaving a somewhat clear outline of a tall, broad creature with short legs. Jim whipped his gaze to the horizon where the sun was beginning to set. "We have to get out of here," he said. At least now he knew this was his timeline. Probably.

"What?" Hiccup looked at him, frowning.

"Why?" Astrid asked.

"It's not safe."

"But the hunters-"

"Are walking dead men if they don't get off this island, same as us."

"I thought you didn't know anything about dragons," Ruffnut pointed out.

"Or maybe," Tuffnut whispered, "he does know about this dragon specifically."

"It's not a dragon, and it _will_ kill us if we don't leave now!" Jim glanced back at the sunset. "We don't have much time."

A scream pierced the air, cut off halfway through.

Snotlout glanced in the direction of the scream, then back at Jim. "I'm with him. I'm not dying today."

"We can't just leave them!" Hiccup said. "If they're in danger from this thing, we need to warn them."

"Of course, we can leave them!" Snotlout shouted, throwing his hands in the air.

"And it kinda sounds like they know already," Tuffnut said as another scream echoed across the island.

Jim checked the sun again. It was almost down. "Can we please leave?" he begged. "There's nothing we can do for them now."

"No," Hiccup said. "We're finding them."

"Like they would try to warn us," Snotlout grouched.

"There isn't going to be anything left by the time we get there," Jim warned. "You'll be going straight towards it."

Fishlegs patted Jim's shoulder and said, "Welcome to the club."

"We always go towards the strange dangerous things," Astrid finished.

"Please," Jim tried again, "don't do this. It's suicide."

"We're going," Hiccup mounted Toothless who took off towards where the screams had come from. The others groaned but followed. Snotlout grabbed Jim and pulled him up.

The dragons crashed through the trees, not bothering to be quiet or subtle. Jim was horrified by how much sound they were making but refused to make things worse by yelling. They burst into a clearing and came to a stop at the middle, looking around to try and find a hint as to where to look next.

"We need to leave!" Jim hissed again. He looked around. The sun was below the trees, now. Blood drained from his face. "We really can't stay here."

"Please," Snotlout said, rolling his eyes, "you're just being paranoid. There's no one here."

"That's the problem," Jim muttered, pulling himself up into a sitting position. He had decided not to try and move while they were moving so erratically through the trees.

"Take it easy, Jim," Astrid muttered. "Where are they?"

"Not here," Jim snapped. "Now, can we go?"

A branch snapped. The dragons crouched low, wings flaring and snarls pulling at their lips, fires and spines ready. A hulking figure taller than any man was only barely visible through the branches.

"Go," Jim said. "Fly. Get us in the air, now!"

The figure started running, braking branches like they were made of paper.

"Toothless, fire!"

A purple bolt flew through the air. The figure slid left, dodging. The bolt struck a tree behind him and flared, leaving only a burn mark and flying bark.

"Get off the ground!" Jim yelled again. This time they listened. All the riders directed their dragons into the sky. Wings flaring and beating down to lift them up.

Too slow. The figure burst from the trees and crossed the clearing in only a moment, reaching out and grabbing Stormfly's leg.

Jim cursed under his breath as he caught sight of Bular grinning at his captured prey. The Gumm-Gumm troll yanked down and slammed the dragon into the ground, knocking Astrid from her perch. Jim cursed out loud this time before calling up his helmet and dropping down onto Bular's shoulders. He summoned his knives and sunk them into his stone flesh before launching off as Bular roared and turned to face him.

"Trollhunter," Bular snarled. "I could have sworn you were taller. Or maybe the great Deya the Deliverer has passed on the title to a runt. What tribe are you?"

Jim remained silent, switching to his sword as he and Bular began circling each other. Jim had to keep Bular's attention on him as Astrid got back into the air. A quick glance told Jim Astrid was limping over to Stormfly, who hadn't gotten up yet.

Bular snorted and charged forward. Jim moved to match him, blow for blow. Jim dodged, blocked, and parried, ducking and weaving. Jim ducked under Bular's guard and slashed. The wound was small and shallow, but it was enough to infuriate the large troll.

A purple blast struck Bular from above, knocking him off balance, but other than that, it only distracted him slightly. Jim moved in again. Bular parried this time, expecting it.

They kept dancing around each other. When they disengaged for a second, Jim checked on Astrid and Stormfly. Astrid had her dragon up on her feet and was getting ready to take off. Just a few more seconds. Then he had to figure out how to get out of here. He could kill Bular again. Probably. But what would that mean. Time travel was touchy and confusing, as shown by the many different theories that Hollywood movies liked to trot out and that Jim didn't understand.

Honestly, he should probably just avoid the trouble and try to not kill him. Hopefully everything would turn out alright.

They engaged again. Once more ducking and weaving, slashing and grabbing nothing but air. Jim knew better than to let Bular get his hands on him and had the experience to keep it from happening, too. It was odd, for Jim. He had more experience than the first time he'd come across Bular, but Bular had less. And he was still angry about the whole Killahead Bridge mess.

A brown blur pushed between them and latched onto Bular's arm. Meatlug gnawed happily on the rocky limb.

"Release me, fire beast!" Bular shouted, shaking his arm like a kid that had discovered some kind of disgusting insect on it. Jim found himself snickering at the thought. Fishlegs, who was still on Meatlug until then, went flying, and, eventually, the force became too much for Meatlug, and she was launched through the air.

"Meatlug!" Fishlegs cried out, quickly making his way over to her after adjusting his helmet back into place.

"You laugh at me, runt?" Bular said as he noticed Jim laughing quietly to himself. Jim stopped immediately and prepared himself for another round. "I will tear you limb from limb! I will destroy that flimsy piece of metal that gives you your title and your armor! I will hunt down every Trollhunter that comes after you and kill them, too!"

Jim almost froze up for a moment as he realized Bular didn't know about the bridge yet. He didn't know they needed the Amulet to open it again. Probably didn't know they could open it again. Jim barely got out of the way in time, now buying time for Fishlegs and Meatlug.

A thick green smoke filled the air around them, igniting a second later, blasting them both. Jim groaned as he picked himself up. That had packed quite the punch. Bular stood opposite him, breathing heavily. Jim was heaving himself at this point. He wouldn't be able to hold this up for much longer.

Meatlug was in the air. The riders were circling overhead. Jim needed to get out of here.

Jim waited for Bular to start charging him, then ran forward. He ducked under Bular's arm and kept going. A series of spikes and a purple bolt flew over Jim's head and struck Bular. Jim kept going, aiming for the trees. He quickly climbed one while Bular was still roaring in outrage. He pulled himself onto on branch and launched himself into the air.

He really should have checked if anyone was close enough to catch him first. Claws wrapped around his arms and pulled him higher as the riders quickly fled.

"And that," Jim said, dismissing his helmet, "was why I wanted to get off that island."

"Those tracks were that thing!" Snotlout shouted.

"Yes," Jim said, "and that thing eats people. He probably ate any dragons that were on that island a long time ago and definitely ate the hunters." Jim glanced, checking to see who was carrying him. up to see the bottom of Toothless's scaly head. The dragon barely even seemed to notice him.

"So, stay off the island," Astrid summed up.

Jim nodded. "At all costs," he finished. He paused. "Could we, uh, not carry me like this?"

"Oh, I don't see the problem," Hiccup said. "So, what's your armor made of again? 'Cause I'm pretty sure metal doesn't appear out of nowhere and disappear just as fast."

Jim blinked. "That's what you're going to- Whatever. Right. Near as I can tell, it's made out of Daylight. It's magic."

"Really," Hiccup said dryly, "and what, exactly, was that on the island?"

Jim sighed. "I don't have much choice on this do I?"

"Nope," all the riders answered in unison.

"Alright, then. That was Bular. He is a troll. More specifically, he's a Gumm-Gumm. The Gumm-Gumms recently lost a war and were banished to the Darklands. He is the only one left on earth and is a little bitter. Obviously. Not sure what he's doing on the island or why he's there, but if you stay away from it you should be fine."

"Should be fine?" Astrid asked.

Jim just shrugged.

"I don't know if you were watching the same fight we were, but we didn't exactly do much to him," Tuffnut pointed out.

"Yeah," Ruffnut said. "It was like he was invincible."

"I'm not so sure," Fishlegs said. "I mean, yeah, we were pretty useless, but Meatlug actually seemed to annoy and maybe even concern him. He was made of rock, right?"

"Yeah," Jim answered.

"Maybe boulder class dragons would be useful."

"I like the way you think, Fishlegs," Hiccup said.

"Please don't do anything stupid. Just leave him alone and stay off the island," Jim said.

"Is that everything?" Astrid asked.

"Everything that's relevant," Jim answered, shrugging.

A quick nod to Hiccup had him directing Toothless to put Jim on Stormfly's back behind Astrid.

"Your positive that's everything you know about him?" Snotlout asked.

"Yes, Snotlout," Jim said, turning to face the Viking. "There's nothing else to say about him."

"We're going to have to warn the others," Hiccup said. "We can't have people accidentally stumbling across Bular and getting into trouble."

"Agreed," Astrid said.

"Great," Jim said. "Your friends and allies are safe, now." Now, all he had to do was figure out how to get home.

"Well, they're not safe until we write up the Terror mail and send them out."

Terror mail? "You know what? I'm not going to ask."

A ding came from the Amulet. When Jim glanced down, he saw purple streams of light flowing from the Amulet and circling around him, much like when he had first activated the Amulet. Stormfly squawked when she caught sight of the strange light. "What is that?" Astrid asked concerned.

"I don't know," Jim answered. "It's never done this before."

"Wait, you don't know what that thing can do!?" Snotlout yelled at him.

"No, I don't," Jim snapped. "No one knows everything it can do. No one's even come close to scratching the surface."

Stormfly was getting more and more agitated as the lights grew and moved faster. Now it was reminding Jim of the massive portal Claire had made to get them out of the closed off gyre station when Gunmar invaded. She began bucking as Astrid tried to get her back under control and calm her down.

"Hey! Easy girl! It's alright!" she said desperately running a soothing hand behind her spines.

Jim struggled to hang on and yelped as he fell from the saddle.

"Jim!" the others yelled, diving after him. But it was too late, or, rather, it wasn't going to matter. Jim's vision was obscured by the purple lights as they cocooned around his body, wrapping him in a warm welcoming light. Jim could see nothing and feel nothing. When the light faded, Jim found himself looking up at the familiar star-studded ceiling of the Hero's Forge laying on his back.

Jim blinked. That was it? He was just… home? His armor faded, and the Amulet fell off his chest and rolled across the ground with a small clink as Jim sat up and glanced around. Everything looked the way it should, but how could he be sure?

"Master Jim!" Jim turned to see Blinky and Aaarrrgghh entering the Forge. "Weren't you going to be testing out the new stone? I thought I told you not to wait for us."

Jim looked down at the innocently glowing Amulet and calmly picked it up. He flipped it over and removed the stone. "I didn't. I don't think I'm going to be using that one again."

"Why?" Aaarrrgghh asked.

Jim paused, thinking. "Well, let's find somewhere to sit. It's going to take me a little while to explain."


	4. Chapter 4- Bonus

Hiccup walked through the field of blue oleander, Toothless prowling the edge behind him. Just like last time, Viggo sits in his chair with an empty spot for Hiccup across from him and a Maces and Talons board between them. Unlike last time, Hiccup called the meeting instead of Viggo.

"Come to negotiate the terms of surrender?" Viggo asked, smiling.

"Oh, are you ready to surrender?" Hiccup responded. "'Cause I think we can probably work something out if that's the case."

Viggo hummed and turned his attention back to the board. "I see you still insist on this silly fight. Oh well, what's did you want to talk about?"

Hiccup gestured for Viggo to move the board. Once that was done, he unrolled the map he'd brought with him. "Here," he said, pointing to an X he'd already marked, "is an island. I strongly advise you stay away from it."

"My dear Hiccup," Viggo chuckled, "if you want to leave something alone, you're going to have to give me something in return!"

"Oh, this isn't me saying that's ours," Hiccup leaned over the map, getting in Viggo's face. "This is me telling you, for your own good and for that of your men, to stay away. What's on that island will kill you if given the chance."

"And you expect me to believe that? Why would you warn me?"

"Because, unlike you, I'm a good person. And no, I don't really expect you to believe me." Hiccup straightened. "Actually, I was the only one that wanted to warn you. The others thought it would be better to just let you figure it out yourself. Or they told me that telling you would only make you more likely to do something stupid like go to the island." He shrugged. "But I can't really just not tell you. What you do with the information isn't my problem." He turned around and began walking away, leaving the map behind. The he stopped and turned back, a finger wagging in the air. "Actually, one last thing. It's not a dragon." Hiccup waved one last time and turned back to continue towards Toothless, who was glairing at Viggo and keeping an eye on the dangerous man Hiccup had his back to.

Viggo didn't do anything, though. Instead he glanced back at the map, studying the location of the island. Hiccup was right, on all counts. But the fact that he acknowledged the likelihood that Viggo would investigate mad bit a bit more likely that he was being honest. And it complicated matters with the whole bluff/double-bluff problem with circular logic.

Wing beats pulled his attention away from the map. Glancing up he watched Hiccup and Toothless fly off, retreating to wherever they had left their friends. Shaking his head, Viggo gathered up the map and his Maces and Talons set, leaving the field of oleander behind. He'd figure something out, which ever way he went. He'd have to. And he'd have to careful not to underestimate Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III.

* * *

 **Okay, now I'm done. Technically, the main story was done last week, and I probably should have told you that, but oh well. As always, if you were inspired and want to continue this or write your own versions, please do.**

 **I hope you guys liked it and thank you all for all the favorites, follows, reviews, and views.**

 **NoS**


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